414 Chronicles of Science. [July, 
The recent eruptions in the neighbourhood of the Kaimeni 
Islands have afforded material for numberless newspaper paragraphs, 
and an excellent excuse for an agreeable trip to some half-dozen 
geologists and an untold number of tourists; but we are not aware 
that they have contributed much to our knowledge of volcanic phe- 
nomena. Heaps cf lava, a new fissure, and even two new islands, 
though startling enough to those living in their immediate vicinity, 
have no special interest for the geologist, and those men of science 
who have visited the spot have either discovered very little of theo- 
retical importance or have not yet made their discoveries known. 
We must, however, notice the report of M. Fouqué to the French 
Academy of Sciences, by which learned body he was sent to Santorin. 
From what he writes, it appears that neither the newly-formed 
George promontory of Nea Kaimeni nor the new island of Aphroessa 
is a true crater, but merely a heap of lava; that the eruptions have 
been on a very small scale and of an insignificant degree of intensity, 
and that the terror of the inhabitants was to a great extent created 
through the burning of a ship and the death of its captain by 
volcanic action. M. Fouqué also records the appearance of another 
new islet, to which he gave the name of Réka, situated in a line 
with the George promontory and the island Aphroessa. In con- 
sequence of the disengagement of combustible gases mixed with 
salts of soda from the lava of Aphroessa, that island has generally 
been enveloped in a yellow flame. If M. Fouqué is right in this 
respect, it is certain that under favourable circumstances volcanic 
eruptions may be accompanied by flame. ‘To some it may appear 
extraordinary to question the fact, as the emission of flames is popu- 
larly supposed to be one of the chief characteristics of such pheno- 
mena; but it is well known that these apparent flames are merely 
the reflection of the colour of the liquid lava on the scoriz and 
lapilli ejected by the volcano, consequently it has been doubted 
whether flames ever occur during an eruption, and even now it 
seems more probable that they occur after the event than that they 
accompany it. 
Mr. Croll’s speculations on cosmical causes of changes of tem- 
perature and on the submergence of the northern hemisphere during 
the Glacial Period have continued under discussion ; but the nature 
of the controversy has somewhat changed, and the medium is now 
the high-class ‘ Philosophical Magazine.’ The state of the case 
previous to this discussion may be thus stated :—Post-phocene 
marine shells of an Arctic character have been found in England at 
various heights up to 2,300 feet above the sea-level, and this has 
ordinarily been considered a proof of submergence to that extent 
during the Glacial Period ; but it has been thought a little extra- 
vagant by some geologists to suppose that the land could have been 
really upheaved so many hundred feet since so recent a date. Mr. 
